{"id":47,"date":"2007-04-18T17:13:54","date_gmt":"2007-04-19T01:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayivey.com\/wordpress\/?p=47"},"modified":"2007-04-18T17:16:53","modified_gmt":"2007-04-19T01:16:53","slug":"tradition-feh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com\/wordpress\/tradition-feh\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>

In the end, I think what really bothered me the most in Beijing and its surrounding area was the crushing weight of 3000 years of tradition.\u00a0 Coming from such a young country as the U.S., it\u2019s\u00a0 a stifling feeling being around a culture where everything important about life has been decided long ago.\u00a0<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n


\nChinese people are born with the weight of over 100 generations of ancestors bearing down on them, telling them how to think about authority, marriage, work, play, love and war.\u00a0 America, on the other hand, was born out of the restless spirit of a people refusing to obey their colonial \u201cparents.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to overemphasize what a difference this makes between our two cultures.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>
\nThe result in China is a culture of sameness.\u00a0 When I toured the various Ming Dynasty tombs, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and other historical sites in and around Beijing, at first it was fascinating to hear the lore of what everything represented.\u00a0<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>
\nOh, I see, cool: Red is a color everyone can use, and its stands for happiness.\u00a0 Green stands for prosperity.\u00a0 Yellow is a color only the Imperial family can use.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>
\nSee these two lions guarding the gate?\u00a0 Which is the male and which is the female?\u00a0 Oh, there it is: the male lion has a large ball (representing power) under his paw; the female has a lion cub under hers.\u00a0 See these three bridges to the temple sanctuary?\u00a0 Middle bridge is for emperor, left bridge is for common folks.
\n<\/font><\/font>All perfectly interesting.\u00a0 Until you realize EVERY temple and traditional building has the EXACT same color scheme, the EXACT same lions, the EXACT same bridges.\u00a0 You even begin seeing exact motifs represented in art.\u00a0 See the pretty jade horses representing good luck?\u00a0 Now see the same exact set of horses in a hundred different sizes, carved out of a hundred different colors of jade, in a hundred different flea markets.\u00a0 Mind you, I\u2019m not referring to similar designs, but IDENTICAL designs.\u00a0<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\nIt\u2019s as if the entire country is based on a set of immutable templates.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>
\nCompare this to old churches in Europe.\u00a0 Even though you\u2019ll see the flow of certain architectural traditions, like Romanesque, Rococo, Gothic, etc., within those traditions you\u2019ll see a wild proliferations of variations on the traditional themes.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\nNot in Beijing.\u00a0 Red, green, yellow.\u00a0 Three bridges.\u00a0 Two lions.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font> <\/font><\/font>
\nIn stark contrast, the skyline of modern Beijing is a forest of fascinating and innovative new high-rises and skyscrapers.\u00a0 Daring shapes, colors and designs abound.\u00a0 The architects?\u00a0 German.\u00a0 Dutch.\u00a0 Italian.\u00a0 Not a single major construction project in the city has a Chinese architect.\u00a0 What a shock.\u00a0 I guess it\u2019s a sign of progress that the Chinese can at least recognize their limitations and are willing to take the step of hiring foreigners to be innovative, since innovation has been bred out of their own national chromosomes.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>
\n<\/font><\/font>Harsh?\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 But when you watch the Olympics on TV next year and marvel at the wild-looking Birds Nest Stadium and other cool buildings in the Olympic Village, just remember \u2013 ALL of them were designed by non-Chinese people who are capable of thinking out of the box.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\nThis extends to all personal matters as well.\u00a0 When I spoke to Chinese people and they learned I wasn\u2019t married, they were honestly shocked.\u00a0 Shocked, and seemingly almost unable to imagine such a state for a 47-year old man.\u00a0<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n


\nIt reminded me of how rich and valuable my heritage as an American is.\u00a0 As an ornery citizen of the U.S., I actually get to decide for MYSELF what colors I\u2019d like to put on my house.\u00a0 Or how to build a family, or IF to build a family.\u00a0 There are a thousand choices I can make a day that I can easily take for granted.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>Well, shame on me \u2013 I\u2019ll try not to take them for granted any more.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

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\nWill it stay this way forever in China?\u00a0 Maybe not.\u00a0 It\u2019s very possible that, with the aggressiveness of their outreach to the West to build their economy that an influx of new ideas could flood into the country and be embraced by the younger generations.\u00a0 I certainly hope so.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>
\n<\/font><\/font>Remember, just because something is old, doesn\u2019t make it good.\u00a0 Just because we\u2019ve done something a certain way forever doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re doing it the right way.\u00a0 You want me to list some of the institutions with a long and respectable history which are an abomination to modern man?\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me started.\u00a0 That rant is for another piece.
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